Richard bowes



UNITED STATES PATENT @rrron.

RICHARD BOWES, OF DARLINGTON, ENGLAND.

FIREPLACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 602,933,.dated April 26, 1898.

Application filed November 2'7, 1896. Serial No. 613,595. (No model.) Patented in England November 1, 1893, No. 20,616, and in France June 14., 1894,1To.239,301.

To all 2072 0112. it may concern.-

Be it known that I, Brennan B'owns, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Darlington, in the county of Durham, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fireplaces, (for which I have received Letters Patent in England, dated November 1, 1893, No. 20,616, and in France, dated June 14, 1894, No. 239,301,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention has for its object a form of household fireplace which can be used with ordinary coal for continuing alight and giving out heat in a bed-room through the entire night without fresh application of coal, which will give a steady uniform heat and have a handsome appearance, and which will be more economical of coal than existing fireplaces and at the same time not be an increase in first cost.

The fireplace can be used not merely for bed-rooms, but is especially adapted for ordinary sitting-rooms and even kitchens as well as for bed-rooms.

The principle of the invention consists in so arranging the fire that it shall be surrounded by a considerable thickness of a poorly-conducting material and arranging it so that there shall be little or no upward draft from below, and yet at the same time so that the ashes shall not accumulate in the fire, and thus smother it. This latter is the great bane hitherto in nearly all those kinds of grates called slow-combustion grates, which are absolutely closed at the bottom, admitting air only at the side.

The invention is best described by aid of the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 a transverse section, of a sunk fireplace. Fig. 3 is a plan of a fire-box; Fig. 4 a section, and Fig. 5 an elevation, of a fire-box placed above the hearth; Fig. 6, a tool for raising the bars.

In the drawings, A is a trough, of fire-clay, preferably about three to four inches thick and having an offset B on both sides of the grate. On this offset or ledge I place the grate 0, preferably three to four inches above the bottom of the trough. This height varies for different kinds of coal. For extremely dirty coal it should be four or five inches above the bottom. For coal having comparatively little ash two to three inches are sufficient.

F is an iron cage or framework holding the trough. This is not actually necessary when the trough is sunk below the level of the grate, but even here in some cases it is useful as forming a protection for the trough and preventing cracking. When the trough,however, is above the hearth and liable to be knocked sidewise, it is absolutely necessary for the long life of the fireplaces, and can be made of any ornamental object, and also can be made to carry the trough at any required height. When the trough forms part of a kitchen-range, this ironwork is formed in one with the kitchen-range.

The mode of action is as follows: The grate or bars 0 being placed in position,the fire is built thereon and lighted. The fire-brick trough gradually gets heated to a nearly red heat and every particle of cinder that falls through into it is burned up to a fine ash. It is found that owing to the comparatively slow combustion, caused by the air having to enter at top and then go out at top again, the fire will keep in nearly the whole day, while at the same time smoke is consumed in a very wonderful manner, as when the trough is in the center of the hearth as it frequently is, and the air can enter from all sides, the air enters at the coldest part of the surface of the fire and escapes at the hottest. Consequently when fresh coal is placed on the fire and begins to smoke that smoke is drawn into the hot embers by the entering air and rises through the hotter portion of the fire-surface, burning as carbonic oxid. The fire-brick, being a comparative non-conductor, continues hot for long after the fire is out, and as the fire con tinues burning after being once lighted for a very long period a fire lighted, say, in a bedroom. early in the evening continues to give out heat for eight, ten, or fifteen hours without being replenished. Further, no air being passed up through the bars from on tside, even though the bars get red-hot and keep red-hot throughout the day, they last for a very long period, as the only air that can reach them is air that haspassed through the hotfire and become converted into carbonic oxid and ni trogen, neither of which have an oxidizing eifect. There is a great advantage in having the bars arranged some inches above the bottom, as first it leaves a considerable amount of space for the ashes to drop into, and consequently the air descending through the cooler part of the fire finds it easier to traverse this space and ascend through the hotter portion rather than traverse along above the .bars, and this is shown by the fact that the fire is always much brighter if the'ash pit or space below the bars be kept empty from ashes than if it is allowed to fill up. The mode of emptying it is as follows: A tool (shown in Fig. 6) formed of wrought-iron is 5 used; The barbs or side projections G are passed through between the barsand then The bars can nowheturned at right angles. lifted out even if they are red-hot and the ashes taken out by ashovel or other tool before relighting the fire.

I- claim as my invention 1.- A. household fireplaee consisting of a trough open only at its top andformedas regards all its sides of comparatively n011-heat conducting refractory material.

2iv A household-fireplace consisting of a trough formed of comparatively non-heatconducting refractory material and open at its top only; and a grate fixed at a point between the-bottom and top of the trough.

3. In a household-fireplaee,the combination of a fire-box having its bottom and all its sides closed and formed of thick comparatively non-heat-conductingand refractory mat'erial; and a removable grate resting on the sides of the box intermediate the top and bottom.

4:. A fire-box formed entirely of comparatively non-heat-eonducting refractory material made in the shape of a trough open at its top only; supports B formed at a point inter- ;mediate-thetop and the bottom; and a grating 0 resting on the supports, whereby an ash-pit is formed below the grate and a box ;for the fire above thegrate.

5. The-combination of a fire-boxopen only ';at its top', and formed both as regards its 1 sidesand bottomof thick comparatively noni heat-cond uctin g refractory material carrying *within it a suspended grate in combination Ewith an iron frame inelosing the same, sub- :stantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this-specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

RICHARD BOWES.

WV-itnesses:

A. B. GoLDsBRoUeH, THOMAS KINGHOM. 

